Volunteer bridges Chinese-foreign cultural gaps

Most foreigners in the city live in their own closed worlds, much like the inhabitants of Chinatowns in America. They seldom mix with Chinese. When they do, value clashes are frequent -- whether over entertainment, space use, or how to discipline one's child.

So amateur diplomat Muller replied to Zhang, "I understand now that you need someone from the outside, so, hey, I can try but I don't really know how."

Since taking the role on the management committee, she says her biggest gain has been promoting language classes. Under her encouragement, many foreign residents have registered for committee-sponsored Mandarin tuition and are able to better communicate with their neighbours.

"If you cannot explain what you want, what happens to foreigners, they give up," she explains of a pre-class status quo under which the majority of laowai tended to communicate only with other laowai.

Also, there appears to be a two-way improvement. Muller has been tasked with polishing written community bulletins to make them easier to understand. She will remove much of the "Chinglish", the nonsensical cross between Chinese and English that often bedevils such notices.

While her calls for more parent-child campaigns have, it would seem, not been heeded in time for the Double Ninth Festival, Muller has been designated chief designer for parent-child activities and she is endeavoring to see improvement by the end of the year.

Her main goal is to negotiate more open space for kids within the compound. "They need somewhere to play after school, a field space where they can run and not be hurt if they fall", she believes.

In the tree-blanketed, Chinese-styled Yanlord, kids have access to facilities like swings and slides, but yellow ribboning cordons off lawns to keep the grass from being trampled.

"Chinese think too much about school, school, school, and forget that children should learn to play, being active in open places and communicating", according to Muller.

The committee has reported her open space suggestion to the real estate management company, but Muller knows it will take time to see any changes. After all, putting her recommendation into practice will cost money.

In residents' eyes, Muller has achieved a lot, but she has still found herself irritated at having to confront so many daily trivial troubles and seeing her attempts so regularly blocked by a "wall of culture" in her own words.

But she has decided to persist. "Bridging cultural gaps is going to take a long time, but it is going to happen", Muller says.